For the last few months while out foraging for whatever, in the back of my mind I was looking for a nice big barrel for rain collection.  The only ones I ever seem to discover are always caked in kitchen grease or sludge, neither of which is fun/easy to clean.  If I were to find a nice barrel, then I’d have to get borrowing some pretty decent equipment in order to outfit it with proper parts.  Rain barrels seem pretty simple, yet they require some time and thought to design them right.

Then I discovered Travis Skidmore, who builds sweet rain barrels here in Philadelphia for nearly half the cost of what you’d see in a store, and with much better parts.  I was so excited to get this and I spend a lot of time staring at it.  Check it out:

Brass spigot, brass overflow valve, a food-grade #2 HDPE barrel, and a 2-part screen to filter out all the crap that my rooftop drain doesn’t.  It also helps to divert the water away from the foundation and into the street, which alleviates the pressure on my hardly intact 110 year old drain pipes.

So, if you’re looking for a rain barrel in the near future, which you darn well should be, Travis is THE dude for it.  He can build custom barrels with ease and delivery is available.  It’s always nice to find another solid person in the city doing good stuff.

For more information, check out http://www.tradertravis.biz.